A photo posted by johnmcblain (@johnmcblain) on May 5, 2015 at 11:18am PDT

My Gran has had this drawing taped to the back of a cupboard door for all these years! Bearing in mind I’m now 32 and Gremlins was released in 1984, this wee childhood drawing is over 25 years old! It’s really sweet to think that she kept my wee picture for all this time!

I Tweeted the photo to Joe Dante, who wrote and directed Gremlins, amongst some of my favourite horror movies, and he retweeted my wee childhood drawing!

Back in February, I was at my first ever FrightFest in Glasgow- a two-day film festival celebrating and screening new and up-and-coming horror movies, a few world premieres and some special guest speakers, directors and stars of the movies!

A photo posted by johnmcblain (@johnmcblain) on Feb 27, 2015 at 5:14am PST

Over the two days, I endured (and endured is the word) 11 films back to back! It’s all fun and games until your arse is numb and you’re stuck watching Mischa Barton run around an underground storage facility in The Hoarder… BUT in saying that, the line up was all new to me and I kinda enjoyed the most of them!

A photo posted by johnmcblain (@johnmcblain) on Feb 27, 2015 at 2:52am PST

I really enjoyed the film adaptation of Mo Hayder’s best-selling book thriller, The Treatment and also the Blair Witch retrospective / documentary The Woods Movie. It was also really brilliant to see a shadowy killer murder fashion models in Arrow Films’ restoration of Mario Bava’s 1964 film, Blood and Black Lace. REC 4 or REC Apocalypse, whatever your preference for sequel titles, tied up the REC series by moving away from the found footage / hand-cam style of the previous installments, although not in the way I wanted the series to end! The Atticus Institute was good and decent tale of possession and military experimentation, and The Asylum / Backmask / Exeter ( they should choose a single name for the film) was another tale of demonic possession this time featuring a group of teens in an abandoned asylum.

A photo posted by johnmcblain (@johnmcblain) on Mar 1, 2015 at 7:12am PST

There were a few good ones that I really liked namely Clown– where a loving father finds a last-minute clown suit for his son’s birthday party only to realise that wearing the suit is a curse that transforms the wearer into a child eating demon, 88- where a young woman gets taken on a violent journey of revenge seeking the person responsible for her lover’s death, and There Are Monsters– the last film shown at FrightFest- which is a found footage style romp featuring weirdness, distorting faces and a prolonged scene involving a dark basement, a poor isolated woman, an iPhone camera flash and the moment an entire cinema audience of horror fans screamed in fright and joy! The film exists NOWHERE and there is no information to be found on it! But trust me! It was a delight!

It’s my 32nd Birthday today!
This blog post is my 200th blog post!
So it’s a happy birthday and happy anniversary all in one!
And since my blog is titled All About John McBlain, this post is all about me!

I’ve been writing a series of blogs called 100 Days of Happiness over the past wee while. It was a way to focus my mind on things that brought me happiness and a way to allow me to process a really dark period that had a negative impact on my life. I got to Day 37 and realised… You know what? That is plenty. Don’t get me wrong! It was a positive thing to do and I can safely say that I am now probably in the best frame of mind that I have been in a long, long, long time!

There was a period recently where I literally had the life drained from me. I was living in someone else’s darkness. It was caustic and upon reflection, I can now see that it really wasn’t for me. My friends and family saw the warning signs from afar. I saw them on a daily basis. Other people’s baggage is a heavy and tiresome burden to lift and oh my god my back got broken trying. At the end of the day though, they really weren’t my bags to lift. I tried to lift them. It didn’t work out.

Hindsight is a marvellous thing and I’ve realised that thinking about the should’ves and the could’ves and the would’ves is absolutely pointless. It gets you nowhere. Well. Actually it has let me realise just how dangerous parasites can be if you let them take over.

I suppose every story needs a dark chapter. And my dark chapter is finally over. I have no need or desire to re-read it ever again. The chapters that have yet to come will make much better reading! I can see that the current one has a much happier ending in store already!

So! 32 years old today!

I think I’ve managed to achieve most of the things I set out to do in life. I have an amazing family. I have amazing friends. I own a house. I have a brilliant job. I work in music for a living. I can call myself a musician and educator by trade. I have a Master’s Degree. I have a pretty fucking brilliant future ahead of me! I also now have a record player that plays nothing but Fleetwood Mac. Happy? You better believe I am!

This blog is dedicated to my one of favourite songs by Fleetwood Mac. It’s my birthday today and my family bought me a little briefcase record player which I adore. I’m collecting Fleetwood Mac records and my parents have donated Tango In The Night to me. Seven Wonders is one of my favourite songs of all time. And that’s all I have to say!

Over the past few weeks, my parents and grandparents have been absolutely ON POINT in dealing with the drama that surrounded my life.

The word is SURROUNDED. Past tense. Past it. Past everything.
They’ve reminded me that I am a fucking amazing person. They’ve reminded me that family and friends are the most important thing in the world.

They’ve also reminded me to LISTEN TO THEM AT ALL TIMES.
When your judgement is clouded ( and by clouded I mean clouded by the darkest shade of apocalyptic, thunder and lightning, fire breathing fuckin dragons dark) the only counsel who you need to listen to is your family and friends. My only regret is that I didn’t listen to them sooner. I was raised by fuckin wolves. And a fantastic pack of wolves they are.

MOVING ON…

So family! My family!
My family surprised me last night with an early birthday present! I’ve been so consumed with the shit that’s been going on that I forgot my fuckin birthday was coming up! And OH MY GOD I LOVE IT!!!